Water Running Out in Atlanta (TreeHugger):
It has been called “the Rodney Dangerfield of natural disasters,” because it gets no respect, compared to floods or hurricanes, but every record in Georgia’s history has been broken buy the current one. “People pay attention to hurricanes,” [state climatologist] David Stooksbury said. “They pay attention to tornadoes and earthquakes. But a drought will sneak up on you.” Lake Lanier, the main source of water for Atlanta, could be dry in 90 days.
I did a double-take when I read that last line. It’s a big lake. They can’t mean dry, as in no water at all: I think they must mean too low to use for hydro power or to let into the river for the municipalities downstream. Right?
Ah, when they mean is that in 3 months, the hydro turbines stop turning and part of the river below the dam will be dry. Amazing. So a misleading headline/lede that will make people think they dodged a bullet. The lake will never be dry, as I suspect most would interpret from the story.
Still, it’s a real problem. I wonder how it will be resolved? Can they conserve enough at this date? And the drought extends through the whole ACF watershed, all the way to the Gulf (see the map with the original story).